Community: Playoff Fundraising

The playoffs were very good for the Kids ‘N Community Foundation, and for that, we say THANKS to the many who donated. In total, we raised over $110,000 from the end of the regular season until the end of the Canes run in the playoffs.

The two major contributors to this were the Beard-a-thon, which raised just over $55,000, and our in-game silent auction items, which raised just over $42,000 during our eight home games. During the regular season, we averaged approximately $2,300 each game at our silent auction booth. During the playoffs, that number more than doubled to an average of $5,300.

The playoff drink koozies also contributed nearly $6,000 to the Kids ‘N Community Foundation while the raffles at Cool Bars raised just over $10,000.

As I have said many times before, this came at a very opportune time as we have extended our Foundation as far as possible to meet the increased demands from local children’s non-profits.

Player BeardsThe player beards were fun to keep track of. There were a few people who had a larger contingency than I expected, but the typical fan favorites seemed to favor well. The final tally looked like this for the 18 participating players:

Final

Player Name

Final Amount

Beard

Rank

Raised

Rate

1

Erik

Cole

$667.00

3

2

Scott

Walker

$574.00

2

3

Tuomo

Ruutu

$516.00

3

4

Niclas

Wallin

$484.00

3

5

Chad

LaRose

$451.78

3

6

Cam

Ward

$415.00

3

7

Dennis

Seidenberg

$335.00

2

8

Tim

Gleason

$308.00

2

9

Matt

Cullen

$287.00

2

10

Eric

Staal

$276.00

2

11

Jussi

Jokinen

$190.00

2

12

Joe

Corvo

$187.00

2

13

Ray

Whitney

$159.00

2

14

Joni

Pitkanen

$141.00

1

15

Ryan

Bayda

$112.00

3

16

Sergei

Samsonov

$97.00

2

17

Michael

Leighton

$67.00

2

18

Tim

Conboy

$66.00

2

Final Beard Notes of Interest

Cole made a big surge at the end with a major donation

Wallin dropped a little from the last game due to a few folks who did not follow-through on their day-to-day donations

6 players finished with a beard rating of 3. Zero players finished with a beard rating of 1. People didn’t want to be “Paula” and freely hand out 4’s or 5’s…but obviously no one was “Simon” about it either.

The top 5 from the first day I started tracking (4/22) was LaRose, Wallin, Ruutu, Walker, and Ward/Staal were tied for fifth

Ruutu, Wallin, Walker and Cole all held the #1 spot at some point. Cole held it the shortest amount of time, but finished where it mattered. Ruutu held number one the longest, but was overtaken by Walker on May 22.

Blog BeardsI don’t know if I beat Sundheim in the true “better beard” contest or not. He came strong. I think he had an overall “better looking” beard…but I might have had a better playoff beard. Debatable.

What is not debatable, I somehow won the fundraising portion (thanks to those that I badgered into support). The final breakdown had me raising $1,433, Jon Chase in second with $613, Mike Sundheim finished a respectable third with $426 and Paul Branecky…well every race needs a loser. Paul finished with $60.

Honestly, I do really appreciate all of my family, friends and Canes fans who supported me. I was personally surprised that I broke the $1,000 mark so I thank everyone for making me feel better about my beard bonanza.

I did have as much fun as possible shaving down from the playoff beard. I promised a few of my donors that I would take a few goofy photos while shaving down. So, I documented a few of my photos on my beard-a-thon page so that you can share in the laughter. I will warn you, these are not my most professional side…but hey, it’s the off-season. Check them out here.

Mike Bolt, the Hockey Hall of Fame’s keeper of the Cup, was in town with the Prince of Wales trophy for game four of the Eastern Conference Finals. I was hoping that he would need to make a return trip…but oh well.

I stopped in to say hello to Mike as he and I spent a lot of time touring NC with the Cup during 2006. I got a look at the Prince of Wales late in the third period and looked better than ever. When we had it last in 2006, it was lacking a few updates. It has now been refurbished and now includes the Hurricanes engraving (in ’06, our ’02 team was yet to be represented on it). I did not touch it, but I did take a photo so all Canes fans can see how we have been added.

On a side note, I always find it funny/cool that the superstition around the trophies is so deep. With the Cup, and with the POW, neither enters the arena until the game is well underway so that the players do not visibly see that it is “in the building”. Not only is this a good superstition, I think it is good sportsmanship by the NHL and the Hockey Hall of Fame.

OtherWe have been working on several things lately that will probably get their own blogs within the next week. However, our Pick Up a Book and Read assemblies have been going great, the Komen race for the Cure is this Saturday and our Canes team is set and ready to run, Cam’s Champs will have their wrap-up next week and the NHL Diversity program is closing in on some great things.